Woodfill faces well-funded challenger for county GOP chair

By Kiah Collier

February 16, 2014Updated: February 16, 2014 10:38pm

Photo: Billy Smith II, Staff

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(l-r) Madeline Collier Vice- Chair of the Harris County Republican Party and Jared Woodfill Chair of the Harris County Republican Party during The Harris County Republican Party's annual Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner, Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at the JW Marriott in Houston, Texas. The event featured a forum with the three Republican gubernatorial candidates Gov. Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina. (BILLY SMITH II /CHRONICLE) less

(l-r) Madeline Collier Vice- Chair of the Harris County Republican Party and Jared Woodfill Chair of the Harris County Republican Party during The Harris County Republican Party's annual Lincoln-Reagan Day ... more

Photo: Billy Smith II, Staff

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Paul Simpson, candidate for Harris County Republican Party chair in the March 4, 2014, GOP primary election.

Paul Simpson, candidate for Harris County Republican Party chair in the March 4, 2014, GOP primary election.

Photo: Paul Simpson

Woodfill faces well-funded challenger for county GOP chair

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The race to head the Harris County Republican Party is about as far down the ballot as you can get.

As such, it typically generates neither news nor drama. This time around, however, the contest to decide who will run the largest county Republican Party in the nation has garnered high-profile endorsements, big-money donations and attention in Austin.

The outcome, some say, will indicate where the GOP is headed locally and statewide in both ideology and management style.

The intra-party showdown pits 12-year chairman Jared Woodfill, a 45-year-old lawyer born and raised in Clear Lake, against Paul Simpson, 58, who is challenging the incumbent for the third time. Political newcomer Wendy McPherson Berry, 43, also is in the race.

Simpson, an engineer-turned-lawyer who moved to Houston 40 years ago to attend Rice University, has won endorsements from such heavyweights as Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, and has out-raised Woodfill nearly six-fold thanks to generous donations from Emmett and others such as Dick Weekley, co-founder of Texans for Lawsuit Reform.

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The $163,000-plus Simpson has raised is "astonishing for a position that doesn't pay a dime," one local conservative blogger wrote last week.

What's different now?

What is so different this time around? It depends on who you ask.

Previously, Republicans had "something of a luxury in that their opponent was not especially well organized," said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones.

That has changed in a big way with the arrival last year of Battleground Texas, a Democratic campaign that has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars identifying and communicating directly with persuadable voters, particularly in the Houston area.

"For Republicans there's a concern, I think, that if they don't get their ground game into high gear, then they risk losing the county altogether," Jones said.

Simpson and his supporters paint the race as a battle over management style, accusing Woodfill of weak fundraising and outreach at a time when the county is growing and diversifying - and, by many measures, becoming more Democratic. They also have suggested that Woodfill has focused too much on divisive social issues, such as same-sex marriage.

At a Houston Chronicle editorial board meeting last month, Emmett complained that the local party is "driving young people away," that hundreds of Republican precinct chair positions are vacant and at least 80 percent of the party's money comes from its own candidates.

"The party is supposed to be supporting candidates," he said. "Right now, the party is living off a few candidates that can raise money. I look at it and I say, 'Look, we need a county party that understands it's about winning elections, it's not about giving speeches.' "

Republican political consultant Jim McGrath said "a lot of people have been looking for a viable alternative to Jared just because he's not getting the job done, and we need to hold him accountable for a lack of results."

Negative attacks

Woodfill and his supporters, in turn, have lambasted Simpson for shying away from the social issues they say will help recruit new supporters and accuse him of lobbing negative attacks without providing viable alternatives.

"There are people that believe that all social issues should be expunged from the party and that will help the marketability of the Republican Party long-term. And then, of course, there are the people that are the social conservatives that, obviously, disagree with that. And I think this is really an echo of that fight," said longtime party leader Paul Bettencourt, who has endorsed Woodfill.

While endorsements in the race have not fallen neatly along moderate-versus-conservative lines, Woodfill has garnered more support from Republicans associated with the socially conservative factions of the party - such as Houston state Sen. Dan Patrick, one of four candidates vying to become the next lieutenant governor and an Emmett adversary - while more fiscal business-types, like former Texas Secretary of State George Strake, are supporting Simpson.

Party losing power

The direction that people like Patrick and Woodfill are "taking the party is a direction that Judge Emmett and other Republicans fear will lead to the party losing power in the county," Jones said.

Woodfill says "people like to talk about Harris County being purple or blue," but "the numbers tell us a totally different story."

He called the race a test as to whether the party will be more fiscally or more socially conservative moving forward.

"I believe that if we're going to be the majority party, we're going to have to talk about both," he said. "The only way we're successful is if social conservatives and fiscal conservatives come together and really have a unity of purpose."

Simpson said he is plenty conservative, but worries the party is not being run in a manner that will ensure it does not go the way of Dallas or San Antonio, which no longer are considered GOP strongholds for local races.

"I believe strongly in our conservative principles, as I have all my life," Simpson said. "I think it's a winning message for us, but we need to quit just preaching to the choir, which we tend to do, you know, and go win converts. You can't just talk to people who agree with you all the time and win."